As the nation faces policy
challenges over juvenile delinquency and subsequent crime, one
all-but-forgotten option remains as promising as ever despite its virtual
absence in recent national discussions and debates: a comprehensive daycare and
after-school care policy. For decades, social scientists in this country have
examined various designs of early educational and daycare programs, some
promising tremendous alterations in the lives of participants and others
offering far more modest achievements. Today, however, long term studies
provide a much clearer picture of how early child care programs and
after-school programs offer significant benefits for communities. Longitudinal
evidence suggests that early childhood intervention programs, which buffer the
effects of delinquency risk factors, help prevent chronic delinquency and later
adult offending. After-school care programs also provide healthy alternatives
to otherwise unsupervised adolescent behavior and hopefully spare children and
their communities the expense, fear, and suffering which often accompanies
delinquent misconduct and subsequent adult criminal misconduct. Overall, early
intervention programs help reduce risk factors that contribute to delinquent
behavior and later adult offending, while after-school programs create
activities for juveniles during the time period when many delinquent acts
occur. European governments have funded early child care and educational
programs for decades, and the time seems appropriate for this country to
thoroughly review their programs and to consider following their lead.